Nerdy Knitter

Look at the list of (100) books below. Bold the ones you’ve read. Italicize the ones you want to read. Leave blank the ones that you aren’t interested in. Movies don’t count.

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown) 2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) 3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee) 4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell) 5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien) 6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien) 7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien) 8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery) 9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon) 10. A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry) 11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling) 12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown) 13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling) 14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving) 15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden) 16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling) 17. Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald) 18. The Stand (Stephen King) 19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling) 20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte) 21. The Hobbit (Tolkien) 22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger) 23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott) 24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold) 25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel) 26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams) 27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte) 28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis) 29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck) 30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom) 31. Dune (Frank Herbert) 32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks) 33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand) 34. 1984 (Orwell) 35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley) 36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett) 37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay) 38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb) 39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant) 40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho) 41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel) 42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini) 43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella) 44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom) 45. Bible 46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy) 47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas) 48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt) 49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck) 50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb) 51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver) 52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens) 53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card) 54. Great Expectations (Dickens) 55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald) 56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence) 57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling) 58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough) 59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood) 60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger) 61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky) 62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand) 63. War and Peace (Tolstoy) 64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice) 65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis) 66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez) 67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares) 68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller) 69. Les Miserables (Hugo) 70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery) 71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding) 72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez) 73. Shogun (James Clavell) 74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje) 75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett) 76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay) 77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith) 78. The World According To Garp (John Irving) 79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence) 80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White) 81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley) 82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck) 83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier) 84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind) 85. Emma (Jane Austen) 86. Watership Down (Richard Adams) 87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley) 88. The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields) 89. Blindness (Jose Saramago) 90. Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer) 91. In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje) 92. Lord of the Flies (Golding) 93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck) 94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd) 95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum) 96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton) 97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch) 98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford) 99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield) 100. Ulysses (James Joyce)

Well, I can't say I've read even half of these books, but there are some I just don't necessarily care to read, so I can't feel bad about my poor showing. There are some I might eventually read, but they're not on my "to-be-read" list, so I didn't italicize them.

I stole this from my friend, Allegra's blog, found here.

posted by Nerdy Knitter @ 7:34 PM 3 comments

Remember Cricket, the stray dog?

I've been meaning to post about this for ages:

She got adopted!

That's right, the poochie-loo we saved is with a forever home. Hooray!

I was concerned because her photo hadn't appeared on the petfinder website, so I called the SPCA, and they told me she'd already been adopted. I'm so glad we did what we did. Sigh. Now I just wish I could find out who has her and hear how she's doing. But that might be a little too obsessive, no?

posted by Nerdy Knitter @ 6:40 PM 0 comments

Free time--what a concept!

I have so many things to write about, but for now, I have 20 minutes before I have to go to work. I've been looking at the unused photos in my flickr account, and realized I haven't posted about so many fun things.

Thing 1:
I participated in the Knitters Review Christmas/New Year swap, and had a fun pairing with Melanie. She sent lots of fun stuff, including a sock-knitting book, and 2 handknit wash cloths. My favorite cloth is red and white:



Thing 2:
My overseas friend, Nic, sent a fabulous batch of Christmas presents, including a one-of-a-kind felted purse:




Oh, and a "minor" bit of news from Nic: she's pregnant!!!! YAHOO!

Thing 3:
I've been knitting, honest. I have done a bunch of things I've forgotten to photograph, including baby booties from Nerdy Hubby's chiropractor's new baby boy, and for colleague of mine who's due any day now. Booties are so cute and little and fast--I love that!

I made a top-secret gift that has to remain secret for a while longer...that took a lot of my time, so I don't have a lot to show right now.

The biggest news in my knitting world is that I'm knitting a vest for Nerdy Hubby...from scratch, without a net. Well, okay, so I have the Ann Budd book to help me with basics, but I just started with a yarn he likes, and knit a swatch to get gauge, then knit a few mini-swatches to find a ribbing stitch variation he likes (k6/p1 was the winner), and then took a whole bunch of measurements to get it to fit the way it should.

I'm still not sure how it will look ON him, but the back is almost complete, and the fabric is really nice. The yarn is Rowan Luxury Tweed in a nice cream/blue-gray combination. It's wool/alpaca, so it has a bit of a fuzz to it that blends beautifully with Henry's fur. What a great bonus!

I think the most frustrating thing about making this pattern up is the fact that I don't know how it will work and won't know until can sew 2 pieces together. So I have to knit the whole thing before I find out whether my shaping decisions were the right ones. That's scary!

At least I have the live model living in my home so I can test the length on him before I finish each piece. For a little while, I thought I was going to run out of yarn, which was really freaky since I have almost 1200 yards of yarn, but now it looks like I'm going to make it. I tell you--designing/knitting for a tall, wide-shouldered man is a learning experience!

I think that's the complete update on my knitting life.

Hopefully soon I'll update you on my successful walking regiment and my super-fun visit with my friend, John.

I have some lovely photos from our trek yesterday (to a park called Crabtree Falls, where there's a--no surprise here--waterfall). I didn't bring my files to work, though, so those will have to wait for another bit of free time.

posted by Nerdy Knitter @ 11:07 AM 0 comments

Zowie!

Okay, so when your Nerdy Mommy says, "You haven't posted to your blog recently," you know you have to listen!

I don't have time to post anything other than "Hi Mom!" but I promise I'll get back in the swing soon.

Knitting projects abound, and I have pictures to boot.

I'll try to keep up soon.

posted by Nerdy Knitter @ 7:27 PM 3 comments